+ Tom Spier/Dayton Miller, Boulder Food Group

If you want to get the attention of Boulder Food Group (BFG), a venture capital firm that recently launched a new $100 million fund, having a memorable package design is a good way to start.

Launched in 2014 by industry veterans Tom Spier and Dayton Miller, BFG has made early-stage investments in several innovative and socially conscious food and beverage brands, including Chameleon Cold-Brew, Caulipower, Birch Benders and MALK. In an interview included in this episode of Taste Radio, Spier explained why visual appeal is a key factor in BFG’s investment criteria and paramount to the success of young brands.

“If you can deliver the right visual representation — and then also the taste and the price — you can steal a disproportionate amount of category share with that combination,” Spier said. “But if you’re lacking the visual appeal, that gets to be a lot more difficult. So we really do try to identify brands that really are beautiful, unique, memorable — brands that are going to get a consumer to stop in a store, take a look, pick it up and, hopefully, buy it.”

Also in our interview, Spier and Miller discussed their backgrounds in food and beverage, how BFG curates its portfolio and what they view as the value-added nature of the firm. They also spoke about why BFG likes “to scale into [its] investments” and shared their perspective on innovative concepts and what brands need to bring to the table in an investor meeting.

In this Episode

1:40: Post-Show, Now Is The Time for More Expo-sure — The hosts reflected on Expo West 2019, and discussed the importance of brands to maintain momentum from the show, particularly if they launched new products at the event. Also: Mike re-enacted a spicy adventure and spoke about a couple new cascara products featured at Expo West.

10:03: Interview: Tom Spier & Dayton Miller, Managing Partners, Boulder Food Group — As part of our interview, recorded at Expo West 2019, Spier and Miller spoke about Boulder Food Group’s investment philosophy and how it evaluates and identifies synergies with entrepreneurial brands. They also discussed the environment for food and beverage investment and how it has evolved in recent years, and the data that can make or break an investor pitch.